http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/My horoscope recently said stop hugging the shadows, step back into the limelight. I'm shocked by how accurate it is. I've struggled with this paradox all my life. I am the good girl, the popular loner. I am the quirky girl, the glamorous independent spirit. I want, I crave attention and yet at times I must retreat, stepping back into the shadows. The only way I've found to reconcile this is to become a word actress letting my characters perform different roles on paper which is of course weaving my own needs, my own fantasies, my love, my loss and my joy into the poems and stories I write. WHY YOU SHOULD READ MY WRITING: Because it can break your heart and save your life, because it can make you feel like a hero and like a whore; because it is messy and beautiful and complicated;but mostly because it asks you to think and to imagine.hourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/455761I've been told I have beautiful lips. I don't know what that means exactly, except that whenever women see me they either lick their lips or rip into their purses for a lipstick reapply. Even babies love to touch my lips. They stick their fingers in my mouth and try to bite my lips. I had a dream...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/434926I still think I'm 25. I work out like a mad-woman and now I'm paying the price. I've pulled a tendon in my heel dragging a 175 lb. work-out buddy across a parking lot while harnessed to him. I heard the tear and flopped down onto the ground in the most intense pain I've ever felt. I'm in a boot...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/434252A friend's turning 50 next week so of course as a writer, I'm trying to come up with some clever things to say at her surprise party. Here are just a few I've come up with so far. I'd love to hear back from you, fellow bloggers, with some of your brilliant zingers! 1. In a hostage situation,...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/432033I begin each year with a collage. I buy a beautiful piece of parchment paper, I gather together my favorite magazines, my favorite Sassy Scissors and I go to it. A friend's husband always says the same thing to me: 'Mary, you're not a teenager.' But I don't care. My collage becomes a visual...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/429551I've been away from blogging for a spell, tending to life's many hits and bruises. I hope you are all safe, warm and loved. I started breeding Golden Retrievers 13 years ago and two of the sweet dogs from that first litter have left us within the last week. I was with Hannah at the end, and even...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/421550I was just surfing the net and saw a site set up by the Goldman family to help stop the publication of IF I DID IT. That site is www.dontpayoj.com. It lists all the organizations involved in the publishing of the book and several TV interviews with OJ Simpson planned for later in the month. I...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/421289Please help me find a word that means BEYOND DISGUST because that is how I felt when I heard that O.J. Simpson has written a book IF I DID IT. Publisher (and fellow narcissist) Judith Regan says: 'I consider this his confession' - but when asked whether Simpson would agree, she said, 'I don't...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/421036The new Bond movie opens tomorrow so of course the newest James, Daniel Craig, is on every talk show promoting his debut. Showing clips of Bond's past, they also showed those great Bond girls, Ursula Andress being my personal favorite. These girls were given great lines, delivered in the most...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/420834In my short story 'Ghost Love' Charles says to Helena: 'It is the sadness of love, Helena, that you will never find everything you want and need from another person.' He touches her chin with his outstretched fingers.'We can never get this time back,' he says. His stare is so intense, so strong...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/GirlWonder/420587It's funny, here we were, two friends, married - and not to each other - and he asks me this question: Do I think there is only one person for each of us? I didn't have an answer. In my short story, 'Ghost Love' I tried to work out a fictionalized version of this same dilemma - what happens when...